Figure 3

Proposed mechanisms of stimulation of growth, angiogenesis and motility in non-gastrointestinal stroma tumor soft-tissue sarcomas expressing FGF2, PDGF-B and VEGFR-3. (A) Paracrin and/or autocrin stimulation of cancer cells leading to activation of intracellular pathways and subsequently survival benefits; (B) FGF2 stimulating angiogenesis through recruitment of endothelial cells and increasing release of MMPs and uPa leading to ECM degradation and remodeling thus enabling tumor cell expansion and motility, PDGF-B recruiting VSMCs and stimulating pericyte coverage of newly formed vessle; Abbreviations: ECM, extracellular matrix; FGF, fibroblast growth factor; FGFR, fibroblast growth factor receptor; PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor; PDGFR, platelet-derived growth factor receptor; MMP, matrix-metallo proteinase; uPa, urokinase-like plasminogen activator; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; VEGFR, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor.